Everyone knows that video as a medium has become a key marketing tool in the last decade. A study conducted in 2021 shows that the average person watches nearly 30 hours of online video content per week, which is more than 4 hours per day on average!
Every experienced marketer recommends shooting commercials, but is video really that key to a successful ad campaign? Is it really worth the solid investment and isn’t this obsession with video content just another hopeless “fashion”?
As an introduction, I feel it is necessary to present some official statistics on the issue of excessive use of video content in recent years. We will hardly be wrong in saying that “everyone makes videos”. And there are really few companies that do not boldly invest in video content, be it for advertising, educational/informative, social, or just image purposes. According to recent studies, the global pandemic has further catalyzed this process. It turns out that 86% of companies use video content as a key marketing tool, and more impressively, this percentage has grown by 25 in the last five years! Even more remarkable is the fact that 87% of these companies register a positive ROI ratio as a result of advertising videos, compared to 33% in 2015! 94% of advertisers say that videos help consumers understand a product, with 43% even registering fewer calls in their call center after releasing an informative video about their products. Everyone can find hundreds of other statistics online and see for themselves, BUT not everyone will find that video content as a marketing tool also has its pitfalls.
Precisely due to the fact that everyone is already aware of the need to create video content in their business, they can easily fall into the trap of high expectations and unrealistic ideas. It turns out that there are cases in which the results of a video campaign disappoint and become an unnecessary expense with no return. Why is this happening, is there a way to prevent it, and what is that side of video content that remains hidden from the eyes of the bystander? Here are the 5 main mistakes when investing in video content.
- Boom
The first big stumbling block in over-trusting video content is the Boom drive or the fact that we’re going to make a video and that’s it. Very often in such cases, the price is not really worth it and becomes a waste, and not a small one. For businesses in the context of a marketing strategy, video content is a “CONSUMABLE EXPENSE”. If a company chooses the path of video content, it must have a vision of what lies behind the hill. Moreover – due to technical specifics, which we will go into more detail another time, creating more video content at once is much cheaper – the price per unit decreases, while the company has much more content to gradually achieve goals – with consistency and sustainability.
- Lack of purpose
In other words – a lack of focus. A video or video campaign may not solve all the challenges your business is facing, but with the right approach, it can solve one. And that’s a lot.
As one great film director puts it, “Everything has to follow the story.” In advertising, “the story” is the “goal,” namely, for the advertiser to know and define very clearly what the goal is that he wants to achieve with the help of video content. A clear and focused goal will make the sample video a success.
- Lack of ‘listener”
This point is especially true for any marketing tool. It is crucial to clearly identify the audience for which the video in question is addressed. Everything that comes to your mind – from demographic, geographical, social, and psychological factors, age, profession, gender, hair color, and shoe size – everything is important and it is very important to know what your target audience is really interested in and why. Only then can you “address” the video correctly.
- Don’t bother me with nonsense, I don’t have time!
Too often there are too many things we want to say, and in our quest to get the most out of the greatest commercial, we create chaos in the minds of our potential users. Here it is very important to prioritize and channel. Video content should be short, accurate, and clear. In many cases, it’s better to invest in five one-minute videos than in one five-minute video.
We need to understand that the reason for the colossal increase in the amount of time spent watching videos is due to the increasingly fast-paced daily life and the shorter-term retention of people’s attention. In other words, people read less and watch more because they lack nerves and patience. Once this is clear, do not overwhelm them with endless and meaningful videos. The power of video is to hold the eye, excite and awaken your emotions. To make you laugh or to provoke you. If any of the above happens, the viewer will find the necessary information himself, will educate himself, and will come to you.
- The lone warrior is still a warrior.
It should never be forgotten that video is one of the many marketing tools, another piece of the puzzle. By itself, even the most impressive video would not work. It is really “helpless” without the support of all other instruments. Especially today, when a video is not a testament of uniqueness, but on the contrary – a trend that puts you in competition with everyone else who also makes videos.
There are a lot of details and details when it comes to creating the right video campaign. The topic is inexhaustible and is not always subject to logic and theory. The five mistakes in creating video content certainly do not exhaust the issue and can not guarantee 100% success. Even if we have solved the 5 problems, this is not a guaranteed success. Creating a short video requires a large team of the right professionals and many other factors. However, I think and hope that the five mistakes can serve as an indicator of the complexity of the technique. Video content should not be underestimated or neglected on the one hand, and on the other hand, it should not be delayed. The secret is probably in the balance. In any case, video is a leading marketing tool all over the world and its presence in the marketing campaign of any product/company is no longer a luxury, but rather an absolute necessity.
We continue to follow with trepidation the ten-year dominance of advertising video content as a kind of modern “genre” in art. It does not seem like people will stop watching videos soon, sometimes with meaning, sometimes without one, so we have no choice but to accept it as a fact and post a video on the Internet.
